2 ambulant vendors robbed and killed in Lanao del Sur

COTABATO CITY, Philippines—Unidentified armed men killed two ambulant vendors from North Cotabato after robbing them of cash in Malabang, Lanao del Sur, police said Saturday.

The bodies of Nonie Baladjay and Alberto Ungkaya were recovered near the national highway in Malabang  on Saturday, the police said.

Malabang police authorities said in a report to the regional police office of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao that the victims might have been killed late Friday.

The killers fled supposedly into an area controlled by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which allegedly prevented the police from conducting a manhunt.

Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag, ARMM police director, said the police were coordinating with the MILF ceasefire panel so that the manhunt could continue.

Relatives of the victims said they could not believe that harm would befall the vendors.

They told investigators that the victims knew the people of Malabang and Balabagan towns because they have peddled kitchen ware, utensils and plastic products there for the past 10 years.

Before they were killed, relatives said the victims collected money from their customers and the amount could easily add up to P100,000.